Lawyers trying to stop scheduled Arizona execution

PHOENIX — Lawyers for Arizona death-row inmate Robert Glen Jones, Jr. have
filed a second appeal with a federal court in an attempt to stop his scheduled
execution next week.

Federal public defenders Thursday asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
for an evidentiary hearing, arguing that prosecutors withheld evidence at Jones’
1998 trial.

Jones’ attorneys asked the Ninth Circuit last week to remand his case back to a
district court. The lawyers say Jones received ineffective counsel at his trial
that ended with his conviction on six counts of first-degree murder.

The 44-year-old Jones was sentenced to death for the fatal shootings of six
people during two armed robberies in Tucson weeks apart in 1996.

He’s scheduled to be executed by injection Wednesday at the state prison in
Florence.